A person's social presence has become very important in the digital world. Your profile defines you as a person, your interests, and what you are offering. Having a meaningful social presence sets you apart from the crowd and may even help you land better roles.
In this article, we will discuss the following:
Why content creation is important?
Picking a niche.
Content creation strategy for Twitter.
Content creation strategy for YouTube.
Monetization.
Tools
Managing notifications
Handling Trolls.
Why content creation is important?
Just think how many times you Googled a coding problem and found the solution online. A content creator out there helped you out by sharing his knowledge in that domain.
There are people out there, tirelessly creating valuable content through their experience.
So, why is content creation even important? Let's see.
To reinforce your learning: Creating and sharing content reinforces your learning. It also proves that you are skilled in what you are sharing and building.
To receive feedback: You get feedback on your projects. This way, your technical skills get better as you start to build in public.
To break the ice: It's a good way to start a conversation. People who met you through social media would also like to meet you in person. It kind of breaks the ice.
Improves soft skills: Your soft skills like communication skills and writing skills also improve.
Networking: You get to expand your network. Networking done through social media is global and vast!
Picking a niche
Picking a niche and then sticking to it is very important. It defines your target audience and also what you are interested in. So pick a niche and then your sub-niche. For example, web development can be your niche and open source can be your sub-niche.
When selecting a niche, think about a topic you can start speaking about immediately without preparation.
Content creation strategy for Twitter.
Twitter, just like Instagram is a short format platform. If you plan to create content on Twitter, take note of these points:
Use your own profile picture: Do you have your own profile picture? It adds to the authenticity of your profile.
Be consistent: Is your name consistent across all platforms? Just don't make it hard for people to find you and connect with you.
Create a profile banner: Make use of the profile banner. Tell briefly what you're about.
Pin tweets: Pin a tweet, it is a great way to gain more visibility and to tell about yourself.
Avoid hashtags: Hashtags are not as powerful. It is better to avoid them.
Don't spam: Don't tag people unnecessarily.
Socialize: Always reply to people as it's a social platform. Engage by replying more than just "Thanks" or "Nice".
Post at least twice a day: Try to post more than once to target people across different time zones.
Avoid links in the first tweet: Adding links in the first tweet is not favorable as it takes people away from the platform. Twitter would not promote it that much. You can add the link in the proceeding tweets.
Content creation strategy for YouTube.
YouTube is a long-term content creation platform. If you plan to grow your audience on YouTube, here are some important points:
Don't waste time on the perfect gear: Don't get hung up when you think you don't have the right tech gear. Just start recording, even if you are just using your phone camera. Once you gain momentum, you can always invest in good gear. It is very important to figure out the gear before buying.
Practice makes perfect: You'll get better with practice. Don't let 'perfectionism' come in the way of 'being good enough'.
Review more than once: Watch your video again and again and adjust till you feel all is well.
Be authentic!: It's OK to be inspired, but ensure that you are not copying.
Use the about tab: Make use of the about page on YT. Redirect people to your website or other socials from there.
Create a banner: The banner should contain some information about your channel.
Create a channel trailer: Take advantage of the channel trailer. Showcase what your channel is about and why is it important for your audience.
Monetization
You can definitely make some decent money through your social platforms. For example, you can promote tweets by setting a price for each tweet. You can always increase the price per tweet as you grow. It is a good practice to send a report to your client when the post is out.
Tools
Staying consistent is one of the key pillars of content creation. You can create, plan and schedule content in advance with the help of some tools. Let's discuss some of them.
FeedHive- for scheduling posts: You can schedule and plan posts a cross multiple platforms using FeedHive. You can also add labels to manage the content better.
Google Docs: They are great for writing and sharing scripts.
Adobe Premiere: It is a very powerful video editing software. With Adobe Premiere, there are endless possibilities to edit and present your videos.
StreamYard: Great for live streams, is very easy to setup.
Tools to avoid
There are certain tools that are not worth giving the time to. Watch out for these tools:
Tools that promise you more engagement by buying followers.
Tools that scan Twitter for popular tweets and encourage you to use them.
Managing notifications
As you start to grow, you might get a lot of notifications. It is a good problem to have.
There are some tips to manage notifications.
Filter notifications: You can turn on notifications from only those who follow you.
Turn off phone notifications: It is always better to turn off notifications on phone or turn them on for a specific time frame in the day.
Handling Trolls.
Trolls would always be there. The more you grow, the more you attract them. Disagreement is totally fine as it helps in getting perspective. However, trolling is not justifiable.
For trolls, hit block and move on.
Key takeaways
Document your journey: If you look at content creation as part of documenting your journey, you'll never run out of ideas. You can share about the tools you are learning or someone you met, or give a shoutout to someone who helped you out.
Marathon, not a sprint: Growing on socials is not a race against time, everyone grows differently.
Stop comparisons: Don't compare yourself with others, compare yourself to your yesterday.
Make content work for you: You can recycle content across platforms. For example you can take clips from a long YouTube video and create Twitter threads or YT shorts.
Make it easier for people to find you: Include links to your profiles using tools like LinkTree or a free version like LinkFree.
Have fun and don't burn out.
This article is inspired by Eddie's recent talk about content creation for developers at the Google Developers Community Summit London.